Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday met with chiefs of SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, and NCSoft, the country’s game giant, to discuss future cooperation. According to industry sources familiar with the matter, Nadella sat down with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, SK Square CEO Park Jung-ho and NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin in Seoul. The Microsoft chief’s meeting with SK leaders was a sign of the continued partnership between the two sides. In 2019, Park, who

Technology Nov. 15, 2022

ASML, the world-leading Dutch equipment supplier for semiconductor manufacturers, will expand its foothold in South Korea with the planned construction of new facilities and add more capacity with the global chip industry’s growth forecast, the company’s CEO Peter Wennink said Tuesday. Acknowledging that the global chip industry may struggle in the short term due to worldwide inflation and geopolitical issues, Wennink underlined that more semiconductors are going to be needed to mee

Technology Nov. 15, 2022

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman expected to visit South Korea later this week, with potential to meet again Korea’s top business leaders as well as sit down with President Yoon Suk-yeol. The crown prince, also referred to as MBS, is scheduled to arrive this Thursday for a two-day stay after he attends the G-20 Heads of State and Government Summit in Bali, Indonesia, according to Korean diplomatic sources Monday. The visit will mark the crown prince’s

Industry Nov. 14, 2022

South Korean researchers have developed a portable virus killer that uses ultraviolet rays to take out COVID-19 in a second, the Korea Railroad Research Institute said Monday. According to the KRRI, the newly developed anti-virus equipment weighs 1.8 kilograms, making it easy for workers to carry it around public transportation such as subways and trains. As the UV ray-using virus killer does not have a risk of fire or leave residue, the KRRI said it can be used for disinfection work in places w

Technology Nov. 14, 2022

Twitter Korea Ltd., the US social media giant’s Korean office, is highly likely to lose a potential legal battle against its abruptly laid-off employees under the local labor law if they decide to file a class action lawsuit against their employer, according to labor experts here. “Regardless of whether (Twitter Korea) had urgent managerial reasons behind the layoffs, there seems to have been no efforts to overcome them. The employer should have talked to a representative of laborers

Technology Nov. 10, 2022

South Korea’s largest gaming convention G-Star is coming back at full strength for the first time in three years as the country’s major game developers are gearing up to showcase their new titles at the event next week. Taking place at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center, commonly known as BEXCO, from Nov. 17 to 20, this year’s event is expected to draw over 250,000 game-lovers -- the largest attendance in the 17-year history of the gaming convention -- to the southern p

Technology Nov. 8, 2022

South Korea’s largest telecommunications carrier SK Telecom will undergo a head-to-toe transformation to become a leading artificial intelligence company, the CEO said Monday. “We will leap into SKT’s version of a distinguished AI company that combines AI with connective technologies based on our main business of telecommunications,” said SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang in a town hall meeting with employees to mark the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. In order to u

Technology Nov. 7, 2022

Unity Technologies, developer of world-leading 3D graphics engines, discussed ways to improve the optimization and convenience for creators using its game-making tools at its annual Unite conference, the company’s Korea branch said Monday. The in-person Unite 2022 conference took place in Austin, Brighton in England, Copenhagen in Denmark, Montreal and San Francisco on Tuesday as it was also virtually open for all developers across the world. Headquartered in the US, Unity operates the wor

Technology Nov. 7, 2022

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon on Monday underscored the IT giant’s data stability, pointing out that the company’s services are being provided soundly. “Established in 2013, data center Gak (Chuncheon) plays a linchpin role in offering (Naver’s) various services stably. With the high level of data backup and mirroring measures, we were able to normalize our services within a few hours in the wake of the recent fire at (SK C&C’s) data center,” said Choi in a conf

Technology Nov. 7, 2022

  Samsung Biologics, the world's leading contract development and manufacturing organization by production capacity, is reviewing overseas expansion options with a determined will to set up a production foothold in the US in the future. "The US expansion is happening eventually. It's not about 'if.' It's about 'when,'" James Park, Samsung Biologics’ chief business officer, told a group of reporters last week at the Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients in Frankfurt, Germ

Technology Nov. 7, 2022

The core consumer price index, an inflation barometer that measures consumer prices excluding food and energy, has increased by the largest margin in 21 years. Statistics Korea’s all items index logged 106.09 as of October this year, up 3.5 percent from the previous year’s January-to-October period. It was also the largest jump on year in 14 years. The index is an OECD standard for core inflation, which excludes food and energy because those prices are more volatile due to seasonal a

Economy Nov. 6, 2022

The novel coronavirus is likely to evolve into a flu-like respiratory virus by the end of 2023, or in 2024, once the COVID-19 pandemic reaches its endemic phase, eventually requiring people to get vaccinated year after year, a senior leader at Moderna said. “During the endemic period, the (COVID-19) vaccine will become available just like the influenza vaccine. You will be able to go online to a health center, do your pre-booking and pay for the vaccine exactly as you would for a flu vacci

Technology Nov. 3, 2022

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Samsung Biologics’ top official on Wednesday stressed the importance of contract development and manufacturing organization companies’ efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how the South Korean CDMO giant is working toward achieving environmental friendliness. “CDMOs play a huge part because we provide the manufacturing and logistics for a lot of (biopharmaceutical) companies and we have to continue to innovate together,” said James Choi, ex

Technology Nov. 3, 2022

FRANKFURT, Germany -- The Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients (CPhI) Worldwide connected thousands within its community from Tuesday to Thursday in Frankfurt, Germany. Included on this global stage were 62 South Korean pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, tripling the country’s presence from the event last year. Based on the number of exhibitors by country, Korea ranked ninth of the 72 countries. Korea was also the only country that had two pavilions for exhibiting each nat

Industry Nov. 3, 2022

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Yposkesi, SK Pharmteco’s French contract development and manufacturing organization specialized in cell and gene therapy, is expecting to complete the construction of its new plant by the end of the first quarter next year, the CDMO’s CEO said Tuesday. “After (the completion of the plant), we will qualify this manufacturing unit and we expect to get the authorization from the French authorities to operate the plant under the (Good Manufacturing Practice) b

Technology Nov. 2, 2022